Cheapest platform for my investments

neilsolaris

I just phoned HL again, and actually the £25 exit fee includes VAT (I thought they said plus VAT before). However, if I consolidate my funds into one before exiting, then I'll save 75%. I don't think there's any fee for me doing that. Am I missing something, or does that sound like a good idea?

darkidoe

If you are going to consolidate into one fund, might as well exit all funds all together and transfer as cash??

neilsolaris

I thought of that darkidoe, but she told me that there would be a £25 fee for the exit of the cash! I thought the previous guy told me that there was no fee for cash though, so I might have to phone them again now. I'm finding this all a bit too confusing!

neilsolaris

Ok, I phoned them again, and I'm hoping this is definitive.

I can consolidate the funds into cash for no charge. I can also withdraw all the cash but leave at least £50 in the account, and that will incur no charge. However, the £50 will not incur any interest. If I withdraw below the £50, that will incur a charge of £30.

Maybe I'll just leave the £50 in the account, in the hope that one day they'll lower the charges.

JohnRo

Is there a charge for withdrawing cash from my Vantage Account?

No. You can withdraw cash to your nominated bank account without charge. To do this, navigate to the Vantage Account you are withdrawing from e.g. Vantage Fund & Share Account and then select the 'Cash' tab. Select 'Withdraw money' on the right hand side and follow the instructions.

If it was me doing this I would go to cash and transfer to a nominated bank account but also leave a very small investment there to negate all the closure/exit fees and then just forget about it.

You've got a £5000 dividend allowance to play for unwrapped investments and £1000 PSA so assuming you've not put money into the ISA since the start of this tax year you'll soon have it all ISA wrapped again.

edit:

Maybe I'll just leave the £50 in the account, in the hope that one day they'll lower the charges.

Leave a sensible investment there, not cash, the worst that could happen is it will grow slowly over a number of years. Their £50 minimum account balance doesn't apply to investments.

neilsolaris

Thanks JohnRo for that. So it doesn't specify any £50 minimum limit there, so hopefully I can just leave, say, a pound in there.

I've already got an x-o account, and it seems better value to me. For the ISA there is a £60 fixed fee per year, and no fee for the SIPP. There is a £9.50 fixed dealing charge, but I rarely do any deals. Maybe I'll transfer the cash into there.

Thanks again.

JohnRo

In terms of HL the £50 minimum limit applies to an account holding only cash AFAIK. If you leave £1 cash in your account with no fee generating investments they will close it automatically and charge you for the privilege.

Just sell to cash for the amount you want to transfer but leave say £50 worth of something sensible, like a vanguard lifestrategy fund, in the account then leave it alone. Check on it once a decade or something

As for where to go next you'll need to weigh up all the options for yourself or provide a lot more information so others can make suggestions

neilsolaris

Thanks very much Johnro, I understand now.

In terms of provided more information, what kind of information would be useful?

I could mention that I'm 43 years old now, and I'll be looking to keep the investment for about 15 or 20 years, unless I need it sooner. I don't like very risky investments. I'm thinking about maybe putting into peer to peer lending.

JohnRo

I don't like very risky investments.

Are you making full use of all your £1000 PSA?

I'm thinking about maybe putting into peer to peer lending.

That's not low risk.

The info I was thinking about was more to do with costs based on what type of investment you plan to hold. How it's wrapped, the amounts involved and how they're deployed, whether you will be lump sum, regular investment, lump and top up, fixed intervals or ad hoc and whether you plan to add to it with other lines of stock or stick with what start out with. All have a bearing on cost comparisons to varying degrees.

talexuser

neilsolaris wrote: »

I've already got an x-o account, and it seems better value to me. For the ISA there is a £60 fixed fee per year, and no fee for the SIPP.

Are you sure about the SIPP? I thought they had upped the charges to £120 a year and £100 drawdown and £50 each fund transfer out?